A Palestinian stabbed an IDF soldier in the village of Yatta in the South Hebron
Hills on Thursday.

The soldier returned fire, wounding the attacker and
killing another Palestinian with him. The two Palestinians that were shot were
both teenagers. The soldier was moderately wounded and evacuated to Hadassah
University Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem.

The soldier was part
of a force from the Kfir Brigade that had entered the village to arrest Khalid
Makhamira, a 39-year-old Palestinian who was recently released as part of the
prisoner exchange for Gilad Schalit.

IDF sources said that Makhamira had
been arrested in 2006 and was serving a life sentence for involvement in a
series of shooting attacks in the West Bank during the second
intifada.

He was originally a Fatah member before he went into jail,
later switching allegiance to Hamas during his five years in
prison.

Makhamira was re-arrested for allegedly engaging in terrorist
activity and particularly the smuggling of money for terrorists in the West
Bank, according to IDF sources.

The sources said that Makhamira was the
fifth Palestinian released in the Schalit deal to have been
re-arrested.

The stabbing took place a few hours after Nitzan Alon was
promoted to the rank of major-general and was appointed head of the Central
Command in place of Maj.-Gen. Avi Mizrahi.

Alon, who previously served as
commander of the Judea and Samaria Division, will officially take up his post
Sunday in a ceremony at Central Command headquarters in Jerusalem.

During
the ceremony on Thursday, Mizrahi said that the position was the most
“complicated and difficult” that he had performed throughout his career.